Critics blast Republicans' tax-funded mailers on health-care law

SACRAMENTO — When Camarillo businessman Ken Bash checked his post office box on Tuesday, he found a mailer from Assemblyman Jeff Gorell.

Aware that Gorell had recently announced his intent to run for the House of Representatives, Bash assumed it was a political advertisement and did what he says he always does with such mail — toss it in the trash.

Only later, after a friend called to discuss it with him, did Bash realize the mailer was an official correspondence from Gorell's Assembly office. He was alarmed with what he saw.

The mailer was labeled as "A California Resource Guide" to explain federal health care reform, but Bash, a Democrat, interpreted it as partisan propaganda designed to "sow confusion" among Gorell's constituents about the new law.

The mailers direct recipients to a website established by the Assembly Republican Caucus, rather than to the CoveredCA.com website that facilitates the health insurance law in California. The GOP site focuses on penalties for noncompliance.

"This is a huge transition for a lot of people, and they do need help understanding it. But this didn't help at all," Bash said. "It doesn't seem right that we're paying for this propaganda."

In response to a public records request, the Assembly Rules Committee on Wednesday reported that four GOP members combined to send out 259,757 similar mailers, at a total cost of $77,496. The money came from the Assembly's taxpayer-funded operating budget.

The two Republicans who represent portions of Ventura County were responsible for the bulk of the mail. Gorell, whose district includes Port Hueneme, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark, sent 108,390 pieces at a cost of $32,960. Assemblyman Scott Wilk, whose district includes Simi Valley, sent out 117,139 pieces at a cost of $33,021.

Health-care advocates and Democratic activists condemned the mailer as a partisan-inspired hit piece designed to fuel public disapproval for the health care reform known as Obamacare. They particularly objected to the fact that the mailers steered people away from the official CoveredCA.com website.

"This is a real disservice to their constituents to mis-educate them about the benefits and options they have," said Anthony Wright, executive director of the health care advocacy group Health Access.

The Assembly Republican website is called CoveringHealthCareCA.com. It is the only website listed on the mailers as a source for additional information. Both it and the mailers emphasize the penalties for noncompliance with the individual mandate that requires most Americans to have health insurance next year, either through a government-run program such as Medicare or Medi-Cal, through their employers or by individually purchasing an insurance policy.

Wilk said it was a mistake to cite the Assembly Republican website as a source for additional information, rather than CoveredCA.com, the state-run site at which Californians can obtain information and also purchase a plan through the state's insurance-purchasing exchange.

Wilk noted that the mailer was reviewed and approved by the Assembly Rules Committee, controlled by Democrats. "It's definitely not a political piece of mail," he said.

"The only problem I have with it, and I did not catch it, is I believe we should have listed the CoveredCA.com website," he said. "I assumed it was CoveredCA, and I was remiss in not catching it. This was supposed to serve as a resource piece."

Gorell spokesman Doug Lorenz noted that the Assembly Republican website, which was created in August, does provide links to CoveredCA.com. On Wednesday, in response to criticism largely generated by liberal blogs, the website was edited to make those links more prominent.

Lorenz also said the original version of the Republican website was edited after Gorell objected, deleting partisan-charged criticism of President Barack Obama and some other politically-tinged material.

"A large part of its purpose is to provide information that is not generally available," Lorenz said of the caucus' site. "It's putting forth information that hasn't been broadly discussed. The penalties are part of the discussion that does need to be put forth. People need to be provided with all the information."

The "frequently asked questions" portion of the CoveredCA.com site does include a segment answering the question, "What are the penalties for not having health coverage?" The answer: $95 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater, for each adult in a household and $47.50 per child, up to a maximum of $285 per family, or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater.

Lorenz described the mailers and the Republican website as "absolutely" a service to constituents. "It's helpful to provide a lot of positive resources people can go to, because the law is creating a lot of confusion," he said.

Democrats on Wednesday assailed the communications as a politically motivated attempt to discredit the federal health care law.

State Democratic Party Chairman Burton called them an attempt to spread false information.

"Developing and promoting a bogus website to lure consumers away from the real CoveredCA.com amounts to denying Californians affordable health coverage — which appears to be the GOP's central organizing principle these days," Burton said in a written statement released by the party.